Before you even step in the gym, understand this.
1. You will not do any type of long duration/distance Cardio (jogging, running, swimming, biking). Your body already have a hard time conserving energy to build mass, don’t waste it on movements that has nothing to do with muscle gain. Save your energy on strength training 3-4x/week. If you need some sun, walk your dog. If you compete in distance events, good luck, maybe find something better to do than burning up your muscle.
1. You will not do any type of long duration/distance Cardio (jogging, running, swimming, biking). Your body already have a hard time conserving energy to build mass, don’t waste it on movements that has nothing to do with muscle gain. Save your energy on strength training 3-4x/week. If you need some sun, walk your dog. If you compete in distance events, good luck, maybe find something better to do than burning up your muscle.
2. You will not do any crunches, curls, or other isolation movements (involving only using a single joint), espcially if you're a beginner. Focus on using compound movements like squat or rows to target multiple muscle groups at a time. This will not only give you the most hormonal response but save you a lot of time in the gym. Read the article below to find out what are some of the best exercises you can do.
3. Your core will be worked when you lift heavy things, do not waste your time on 100 rep sit ups or Russian twists. Heavy chin up and deadlifts will work your core extremely well. If you know Olympic movements, that’s even better. If you don’t have weights, pick up something heavy and squat with it, flip a tire, or simply sprint a few times.
4. Drink 2 glasses of milk after your workout, eat ice cream before bed. Drink a gallon of milk a day if you can handle it. Make whole eggs, cheese, and milk a big part of your diet. Any liquid calories will help a lot too. yes, drink soda, orange juice, and milkshakes, whatever it takes to take in more calories.
5. Track your workouts. This will keep you honest and is the only way to see if you’re slacking. Muscle will always follow strength gain. Buy a notebook or tablet and track all your big lifts. Also track your body weight and muscle size too.
Some compound movements include any variations of presses, rows, deadlifts, squats, and bodyweight movements such as push up, chin/pull up will do the job.
http://jasonferruggia.com/it-aint-strength-training-unless-youre-gettin-strong/
6. Eat more calories (if you’re tracking). This means always have food available around you. The more calorically dense they are the less time you spent digesting them (it takes calories to digest foods, too) which means you get hungry sooner and store your calories much quicker. Drink your calories if you have to. A good way make sure you’re getting enough calories is take your current bodyweight in pound x 17 or more. That’s how many calories you should be at least taking it. If you’re 140lb, 140 x 17 = 2380kcal. That’s the minimum!
http://www.leangains.com/2010/12/maximum-muscular-potential.html
but if you’re gaining more body fat than muscle (bulking), dial down on the calories. Your strength should be going up, if it's not, you're just getting fatter. Here’s how much muscle mass you should expect gaining from proper weight training. http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html
7. Eat more protein.
Especially fatty protein such as ribs, steak, eggs, cheese, organ meats, and any kind of marine life products; clams, mussels, tuna, salmon, shrimp to name a few.
If you're counting, get at least 1g of protein per lb of body weight. so if you're 140lbs, eat 140g of protein. 1g of protein is 4 calories, 140g x 4 = 560kcal. This should be pretty easy to meet even if you're a vegetarian. look online for recipes you can make to make your plant-base diet rich in protein, just know that the amino acid profile will always be richer and superior in meat products x100. esp. the ones responsible for protein synthesis (BCAA).
If you're not a big fan of meat products, you can drink milk or supplement with some kind of whey protein shake or take BCAA capsules. You can easily find them on bodybuilding.com or any walmart/HEB will have them.
If you're vegan, you are out of luck and probably deserve to be in your weak and deficient/defected physical condition today. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to be sick/weak just to be cool?
8. Eat more carbs.
If it doesn’t make you drowsy all day, have carbs every meal, especially pre and post workout and on training days in general. rice, corn, yam, carrots, soy, beans and processed carbs such as chips, cookies, bread, paste, noodles, cheese cake, soda, juice, burgers, fries, pizza are all great options. No, they're not "dirty", they're just calories, which is what your body lacks.
9. Increase your meal frequency.
Eating more often all day, every day. When you do, you are likely to take in more calories in general. This will slow down your already very high metabolism and your body will start storing energy instead of burning them.
food ingestion = insulin release (among many other anabolic hormones) = calorie/nutrient storing/packaging in our cells... not expending.
Snack anywhere you go, have ready-to-go protein bars or powder at your office, car, home, school. Drink a shake or chocolate milk when you get up, between meals, and before bed. Dry fruits, cheese sticks, nuts and seeds are all convenient, on-the-go snacks to keep close by.
http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html
10. If you play a sport recreationally and must perform conditioning work, keep your sessions under 20mins and no more than 2x/week. the sport itself is conditioning already, so don't over do it when you're not doing the sport. Use hill sprints, sled push, high rep, short rest weight training, or tabata anything to get your heart rate going.
http://jasonferruggia.com/why-cardio-sucks-and-what-to-do-instead/
The point is to jacked up your VO2max without burning too many calories,so that you save those precious fuels for weight training and muscle recovery (remember, the goal is to built lean mass).
Reduce as much energy spent on submaximal activities that doesn’t give you the hormonal response you need for size gain.
When you're not conditioning, always use higher intensity (low rep) movements with plenty rest between sets and you’ll conserve more energy/calories to build lean mass.
http://greatist.com/fitness/fix-common-workout-mistakes
11. You need a plan your workouts and stop messing around in the gym. Pick a couple goals from the articles below and make sure you stick to it!
http://jyfitness.blogspot.com/2011/12/sample-goals-for-strength-and.html
http://www.leangains.com/2011/09/fuckarounditis.html
If you don’t have a Mass Gaining Strength Program, shoot me an email Jem_yeh@Yahoo.com and tell me a little about yourself and some of your struggles, I'll help you troubleshoot a few things.
Check out how my clients get lean and strong!
http://jyfitness.blogspot.com/p/2012-transformations.html
http://jyfitness.blogspot.com/p/2012-transformations.html
